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"This Bureau of Mines report deals with water infusion of coalbeds, which can control methane emission at face areas during developmental mining and which may sometimes suppress dust. Studies show that water infused into the coalbed flows through the fracture system and displaces the methane in the fractures and prevents migration from the solid coal. Displaced gas migrates away from the face area that has been water infused and enters the return ventilation airways. A gradual decrease in methane emission is observed from the start of infusion until the infused zone is mined through. Depending on the permeability of the coalbed, infusion pressures ranged from 300 to 2,200 lb/in2. Face emissions in the upper Kittanning coalbed were reduced by 89 pct; reductions of 38 to 79 pct were measured in the Pittsburgh coalbed depending on the relationship between the face cleat direction and mining direction. Respirable dust levels were reduced by about 75 pct on a longwall section in the Pocahontas No. 3 Coalbed and by about 50 pct on a development section in the upper Kittanning coalbed, but no statistically reliable reduction was found in the respirable dust levels in the Pittsburgh coalbed." - NIOSHTIC-2

"Ventilation has long been the primary means of controlling methane emissions in underground coal mines. However, as mining has progressed into gassier areas of U.S. coal basins, supplemental means of methane control have become of interest, if not a...

"The effect of water infusion on the flow of methane and on the production of dust was investigated at an active face in the Pittsburgh coalbed. The average total flow of methane at the face decreased by approximately 79 percent, whereas the flow fro...

"Research workers from the Bureau of Mines and industry met with other government and industry representatives at the Mont Chateau Lodge, Morgantown, West Virginia, on May 30-31, 1973, to discuss the current status of methane control in eastern U.S. ...

"The method of moving averages was found useful in assessing the nature of methane emission in coal mines. Emission rates were influenced markedly by the presence of abandoned oil and gas wells in the vicinity of the mine. Such wells appeared to incr...

"Tests were conducted in the Pocahontas No. 4 coalbed in southern West Virginia to determine if successful degasification techniques, developed during an earlier study in the Pittsburgh coalbed, would be effective in removing methane from those usual...